O'Farrell caught in casino stoushes on two fronts

Mar 8, 2012

Illustration: Cathy Wilcox

LETTERS

Now that the Star casino has enlisted a public relations company to allegedly sully the image of those giving evidence against it at the Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority's inquiry, it is time for public hearings (''Premier accuses Star of smear campaign against ex-employee'', March 7).

The matters being investigated are of significant public interest and public hearings would add much needed transparency and legitimacy to the whole process.

John de Bres Rose Bay

The Premier stated in regard to leaks surrounding the Star casino ''at worst it confirms what I think most people believe''. I would be careful about thinking what most people believe, Mr Premier, as a lot of the comments surrounding the Star casino have come hot on the heels of a very public display you made in response to James Packer's intentions of building another casino in Sydney on land set aside for public use.

While there is an investigation under way I would have thought it very prudent for a premier to keep his counsel on the matter.

Lyne Dobson Waterview Heights

Our state government is having problems with the current casino. And yet our Premier is agreeable for another one to be built at Barangaroo. I take it you like double trouble, Barry?

Deborah Lloyd New Lambton

I guarantee Jill Stephenson (Letters, March 6) that Barangaroo will be both beautiful and botched, depending on your point of view. It's how we do things in Sydney; just look at the Opera House

Rodney Crute Hunters Hill

Paul Keating (Letters, March 5) muddles the history of Barangaroo's planning.

In 2005-06 the government ran an open international competition for the design of the Barangaroo site - the most important competition in Sydney since the one for the Opera House 50 years before.

The government wrote the brief and selected the jury, who then set out the selection criteria. The jury, of which Keating was a member, unanimously selected our scheme on its merits, out of the 137 schemes submitted. The jury's report praised our scheme as coming ''from local Sydney talent who have a deep understanding of Sydney's urban and natural form. The scheme is grounded in a unique vision for 'completing the western edge of the city'.''

Our scheme made the entire foreshore inalienable public parkland, connected to the body of the city by a network of public streets and public transport. We have since been excluded from planning changes at Barangaroo.

If this disastrous project is completed, all Sydney will want to know who is to blame. The 22-hectare Barangaroo site is entirely public land, our land. We expect the government and its agencies to be the custodians of the public interest.

Will the O'Farrell government stand up on these issues, or is it ''business as usual'' in NSW?

Philip Thalis, Paul Berkemeier and Jane Irwin Surry Hills

An election promise has been undermined

The O'Farrell government has broken its election promises to permanently protect sensitive natural areas of NSW from mining and coal seam gas exploration and extraction (''New rules as miners get access all areas'', March 7).

The government promised balance and protection for farmers and the environment but it has sold out the long-term interests of NSW, failing to declare any land off limits to coal or coal seam gas mining activities.

I strongly support strong legislation that places sensitive natural areas and strategic agricultural land off limits to mining and gas activities and call on the government to honour its election commitment to do this very thing.

Annie Nielsen Winston Hills

The strategic regional land use plans released by the state government are a perfect example of a smoke and mirrors exercise.

Nothing has changed. Land owners across NSW still have to allow mining and gas companies on to their land to put down exploration drill holes. Each new proposal will have to be challenged on its individual impacts. There is nothing strategic about this.

Bev Smiles Wollar

It seems that Barry O'Farrell has adopted the vision ''The Light on the Hill'' - an oil well burning on every hill in NSW.

Robyn Cashman Fernhill

Floods hard slog

The photograph on the front page of the Herald showed the people of Wagga Wagga banding together to protect their town. The accompanying article, however, quoted only two residents, one of whom reckoned the authorities might have exaggerated the threat to gain co-operation (''A knock on the door mobilises a country town'', March 7). The other said

it was a ''disgrace'' that Wagga appeared vulnerable. Both refused to leave their homes when requested.

When the police, emergency workers and volunteers are doing their best, it doesn't really help for their efforts to be undermined.

Minty Smyth Edgecliff

Let's hope Barry O'Farrell was offering more than sympathy as he spoke to Wagga Wagga residents furiously hand-filling sandbags. It's obvious that sandbagging machines given to all SES groups would be much more efficient, perhaps too late for this flood, but certainly for future crises.

Joan Brown Orange

Battlers beware

We can't say Tony Abbott didn't warn us about that great big new tax on everything (''Business sounds alarm over Abbott's parental leave plan'', March 7). The bit he didn't make clear was that it will be an Abbott government that will be bunging on an extra 1.5 per cent company tax to fund his great big paid parental scheme.

He should also make it clear that if you are a battling mum on $30,000 a year, then your baby will be worth $15,000, but if you are a well-off mum on $150,000 a year, then your baby will be worth $75,000.

Both mums, however, will be paying exactly the same 1.5 per cent increase in prices on virtually everything they buy, when the top 3200 companies jack up their prices.

I guess Abbott and his ilk think battling mums deal better with hardship.

David Atherfold Clareville

The new phrase that all the conservative parrots have learned is ''class warfare''.

George Dodd Earlwood

Hands off heads

I am sick and tired of seeing NRL players gang-tackled and then being given extra attention to the head such as the Chin Strap and the Grapple (''Wrestle Mania IV'', March 7). Any touching of the head should be immediately penalised. The NRL and referees are pathetically soft when it comes to dangerous tackles.

Alastair Browne Cromer Heights

Double standards

It has always been my understanding, John Doran (Letters, March 7), that the reason people have unions is that they can use them to work for the betterment of those they represent.

Why, then, is it not OK for workers to have unions but OK for businessmen and women to have their chambers of commerce and associations with similar titles to represent their interests? A union by another name.

Mary Grocott Orange

The Rail, Tram and Bus Union agrees wholeheartedly that the core business of unions should be to lobby the government of the day and employers in the interest of our members.

For example, train drivers in NSW and across the country are facing the prospect of being forced to pull shifts of well in excess of 12 hours under proposed national rail safety laws. Without the RTBU, who else would be lobbying hard on behalf of workers to stop this dangerous change happening?

But none of this means the movement can ignore its basic political imperatives.

We should never forget the sentiment of the ALP's founders when they said that ''the rule that trade unionism must steer clear of politics was a golden rule, but that time is drawing to an end and we can radically improve the lot of the worker if we secure a substantial representation in Parliament''.

That remains as true today as it was then.

The Australian labour movement, both industrially and politically, is not only still a ''good thing'', it remains a necessary thing.

Bob Nanva National secretary, Rail, Tram and Bus Union

About time

At last some action on bike-riding misbehaviour (''Moore targeted'', March 7). It has taken too long for cyclists to be brought into line and to give the lie to Clover Moore's ''sharing'' mantra.

When Prince Alfred Park was renovated the City of Sydney council had the option to separate pedestrians and cyclists on a new pathway but went for the vastly more dangerous option of allowing speeding, weaving cyclists to ''share'' the path. Even ordinary footpaths have now become ''safe'' for cyclists.

As for running red lights, don't get me started.

Gordon Stevenson Surry Hills

I have been a committed atheist for most of my thinking life, but this decision by the NSW Premier to take Sydney's transport and traffic responsibilities away from Clover Moore has forced me reconsider my position.

Are those whose claims are subsequently accepted on appeal redesignated to ''positive pathways''? The yellow brick road perhaps? More inane corporate-speak that has no place in the public lexicon.

Anne Ackroyd Melba (ACT)

I believe the Immigration Department's data above all else that 88 per cent of asylum seekers who arrive by boat, including those who were rejected initially, have been found to be genuine refugees and now have a visa.

I do not believe Scott Morrison, the Coalition's immigration spokesman, who has been accused by John Menadue, the director of the Centre of Policy Development , as being xenophobic. He also describes Mr Morrison as shameful for suggesting that asylum seekers spread disease.

When will the federal opposition stop muddying the waters and acknowledge that the majority of illegals in Australia arrive at our major airports and not on leaky, overcrowded boats?

Eric Palm Canada Bay

What if …

Had the mothers of those prepared to use ''being childless'' as a slur, been childless, this topic would not exist (Letters, March 7).

The purpose of Iran's reactors is sketchy. The West claimed proof of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. The West was wrong.

Iran has nothing to gain by attacking Israel, nuclear or otherwise. It may well attack, if in retaliation. We do know that to bomb the Iranian reactors is by all accounts an extremely difficult exercise, with no guarantee of the desired results, even if the US assists Israel.

Netanyahu is reputed to have stated he doesn't want to be remembered as the Prime Minister on whose watch Israel was annihilated by Iran. With his present ambitions, he might well be remembered as the Prime Minister responsible for, at best, mass conflict in the Middle East, or at worst, World War III.

If he devoted his energies to making peace with the Palestinians, rather than humiliating them, blockading them, bombing them and building on their land, his legacy may be that a peaceful solution was his doing.

Regrettably, I can't see that happening with him as Prime Minister. There would need to be a change of government in Israel and a swing of opinion, more in line with increasing support there for peace with the Palestinians. I hold my breath.

Peter Loewensohn Cremorne

Libraries are still to lift their game

Two senior librarians took a timid approach in ''Shhh happens, but silence now olden in library'' (March 6): the state librarian of NSW says there is no need to be quiet and the head of the National Library ''is delighted'' if some visitors ''scarcely go near the books''.

Would it pass the laugh test if directors of art galleries, museums, theatres and concert halls told patrons there was no need to look at pictures or exhibits or to silently enjoy plays or music? The negative image of libraries persists 140 years after Melvil Dewey, the man who created the classification scheme, said that librarians were not ''mousers in musty books''.

Diana Wyndham North Sydney

No one reads books anymore; they interact with information. No one wants somewhere quiet to read.

No point in closing the gates as the barbarians are already inside if the man running the State Library thinks a library is a mall. Why bother teaching children to read, just Google it.

In a related issue the chief doctor for the London Olympics has decreed that English Olympic competitors should not shake hands with foreign competitors or dignitaries for fear of contracting some dreaded bug which will render them so sick they will be unable to compete in the forthcoming Games.

Raymond Seidler Kings Cross

Pump action

Peter Miniutti (Letters, March 7) falsely believes that the ACCC pulled the oil companies into line re pricing and market control. In fact, what happened was that Shell and Caltex effectively handed over control of petrol retailing/pricing to Coles and Woolworths. Result - market dominance in yet another retailing area.

Les Nelson Frenchs Forest

Make tunnel free

I note that the Cross City Tunnel has a toll while above-ground entry to the Sydney CBD is free. Why not make it the other way round? That would free up some traffic space.

Bruce Stafford Tascott

Underclass exists

If Rebecca Wright (Letters, March 7) thinks the class war has been over for years I suggest she attend any local shopping mall. There she will she very poorly paid young Asian women on their knees attending to to corns and bunions of the well-to-do. No doubt their parents are off cleaning houses and offices. For Rebecca and the winners, the war might be over but I am not sure the losers have signed the armistice.

Lou Collier Surry Hills

Rein in Rinehart

Mrs Gina Rinehart is entitled to spend her money as she likes - and indeed one could argue that the more she spends, whether on lawyers or otherwise, the better for the rest of us - but can she not see how unedifying is the dispute between her and three of her children, particularly the specious grounds on which a suppression order has been sought (''Rinehart tries again after judge denies gag'', March 7)? Surely this is not the kind of action that our court system was set up for? This spectacle truly shows how ''justice'' is for those with deep pockets.

Mike Phillips Wollstonecraft

Gina, Clive and Twiggy would no doubt agree with the sentiments of Anatole France, the French novelist, who once said: ''The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich and the poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.''

Martin Field Noosa Heads (Qld)

Epistling in wind

Although Twitter is an option (Letters, March 7), the aim of the Herald contributors is not to be widely read, but to be read by the well-read.

Mustafa Erem Terrigal

All I can say is that I am glad that one can send ''letters'' via email.

I'd be broke by now if I had paid postage for all the letters I've submitted.